muting strings

I have not figured out an efficient way to mute a string that was just played. When I play short 'punchy' notes (staccato i think?) the string still hums - any tips on effectively reducing or eliminating this hum? ty

Set your metronome at 100bpm. Play quarter notes alternating between your index and middle fingers. As soon as you pluck a note with your index finger, IMMEDIATELY rest your middle finger on the same string to stop it from vibrating(reverse this for the next note). Try to make the quarter note sound as short as it possibly can. You want the note to barely ring at all, and notice that you're already set up to pluck the next note when the next beat hits.

Once you get this down really well try it with eighth notes, and eventually try 16th notes once it starts getting easier.

This kind of plucking will also improve your overall speed too since it forces your fingers to work faster than they normally would.

Keep your left hand in a closed position, and do your muting with that hand. It would involve more shifting, because it's difficult to make it work when you fret with your ring and pinkie fingers. So do most of your fretting with you index and middle fingers, and use the rest of your left hand to mute the string. If you do this in addition to plucking very short with your right hand, as others have suggested, the notes should be extremely muted, and sound great.

The only other way I can think of to get a truely muted sound is to use the right hand palm muting techinque, which involves downward plucking strokes with the thumb.